Houston Woman Accuses Deputy Officer Of Sexual Assault During Drug Search

Charnesia Corley, 21, has filed a complaint against the Harris County Sheriff’s Office for conducting a vaginal cavity search in public following a suspicion of marijuana possession back in June.

ABC 13 KTRK / Via abc13.com

A 21-year-old woman from Harris County in Texas believes she was the victim of sexual assault after a deputy officer conducted a vaginal cavity search in public on suspicion of marijuana possession.

On June 21 around 10:30 p.m., Charnesia Corley was stopped by a deputy officer for allegedly running a stop sign, according to local ABC affiliate KTRK.

Corley had been on the way to the store to pick something up for her mother, who was sick.

A Harris County Sheriff's Office spokesperson told KTRK that the officer smelled marijuana when he approached her vehicle, ordered her out of it, placed her in handcuffs, and put her into the back of his patrol car.

The officer detected the same smell in his car when he returned to it, and at that point called a female deputy to perform a body cavity search, KTRK reported.

Corley said that the female deputy ordered her to pull her pants down. She refused, telling the officer that she was not wearing any underwear.

"'Well, that doesn't matter,'" Corley recalled the deputy saying.

Corley said she hesitated, and recalls the officer then throwing her to the ground near her car, which was parked at a Texaco gas station.

She told Corley to open her legs, and threatened to "break them" if she didn't.

"I feel like they sexually assaulted me," Corley told KTRK, and added that she felt "disgusted, downgraded, humiliated."

Sam Cammack, Corley's attorney, believes the June 21 incident to be a violation of his client's constitutional rights.

"I've defended law enforcement. I don't jump on the band wagon [sic] of trying to persecute police officers," Cammack told the Houston Chronicle. "But what these officers did out there at the Texaco station was unconscionable. I've worked many big cases and I've never seen that."

Cammack told the Chronicle that he planned to file a federal lawsuit against the Harris County Sheriff's office.

BuzzFeed News has reached out to the Harris County District Attorney's Office, the sheriff's office, and Sam Cammack for more information.

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